Ukraine Strikes St. Petersburg Oil Terminal Ahead of Putin's Economic Forum

Ukraine has struck an oil export terminal in St Petersburg hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin's annual economic forum got underway.

The attack on St Petersburg, Putin's home city, and the location of Davos — a showcase economic forum designed to attract foreign investment — comes as both sides dial up strikes on each other in the more than four-year-old war.

A plume of smoke was visible from the historic city centre where an oil export terminal had been hit, and Reuters correspondents reported hearing loud explosions on Wednesday morning.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed his drones struck the fuel terminal and said they had also targeted a military facility near what is Russia's second-largest city.

Alexander Beglov, the governor of St Petersburg, said that unspecified "infrastructure objects" had been hit in three different districts of the city.

Alexander Drozdenko, governor of the wider Leningrad region, said air defences had shot down 59 drones overnight.

The city's Pulkovo airport had to temporarily restrict flights, Russia's aviation watchdog said, and more than 30 flights were delayed or cancelled.

Given the importance of the event to Moscow, the Ukrainian attack is likely to raise questions inside Russia about how effective its own air defence capabilities are, a problem that Ukraine is also grappling with.

The location of the economic forum itself was heavily protected, however, and there was no suggestion that Ukrainian drones had gotten close to the venue.

NATO chief's surprise Kyiv visit

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday, local time, for an unannounced trip, after a series of large-scale fatal Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital.

President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is expected to meet with Rutte, has been appealing to members of the defence bloc for help protecting Ukraine from Russian ballistic missile attacks.

The visit was announced by Ukraine's national railway operator on the social media platform Telegram.

"Today at the Kyiv railway station, we are gladly welcoming NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte," Ukrzaliznytsia wrote alongside images of the NATO chief on the platform.

"This visit is extremely important, just like all the previous ones, because it is a gesture of solidarity and support from the Alliance for our country."

The post was later deleted after the photos were widely circulated.

The visit comes after, earlier this week, Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles against Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, killing at least 22 civilians and wounding 138 others.

Putin has escalated Moscow's aerial campaign in recent weeks in an apparent bid to take advantage of Ukraine's shortage of US-made air defence systems and persuade an increasingly pessimistic audience at home that Moscow is prevailing in the four-year-old war.